One Good Reason
by AnimeKeepsMeSane
Summary: Seto is a powerful business man and Joey is an assassin. When Seto turns the tables on Joey, he finds himself stuck with the man while fighting an unsettling sense of De Ja Vu. What's that in his drawer and what does it have to do with Joey's lost past?
1. Prolouge

**Bang! You're dead.**

**Yes, this is how I think they should end the conflict in Libya. After all, there are plenty of agencies *cough*CIA*cough* that could do this. Puppyshipping with Puzzleshipping and Chaseshipping as side pairings. There will be more to go with this, so bear with me. I've been working on my own book and havn't really had time to work on any fanfictions. This has been done for ages and there was supposed to be more to this chapter but...eh.**

**Joey, Yugi, Tristan, Duke © Kazuki Takahashi**

**Idea © me**

Joey centered the cross-hairs over the mans white night-shirt. After three weeks of surveillance, Joey knew that the man spent twenty minutes on his balcony looking out over Tripoli everyday. Large chunks had been ripped from buildings, sidewalks, and statues. Blood stained the street in great puddles, soaking into the ground. But the man stared at the city he claims as his as if it were a shining utopia. He is mad, Joey has seen it in his eyes. It is his madness that had turned this city to a ghost town. Of course, it is because of this madness that Joey is here. Joey released the safety on the far-shot sniper rifle in his hands. Joey chewed his cheek as he watched the man smile and straighten. He'd been hired by one of the rebel forces heads, oddly enough the ex-chief of defense for this man, but after watching the coverage on what had been happening here, he knew he would have done it on his own. Of course, Joey wasn't supposed to know who'd hired him, and of course his employers guaranteed all services would bee anonymous, but they did like to keep tabs on who was sending their assassins where, just in case there was an active vendetta and the customer was sending them into a trap. It had happened twice so far in Joey's time, and he knew that it hadn't ended well for the customers. Joey chuckled once before he held his breath, and pulled the trigger.

He watched the bullet impact on the mans chest through the scope. Blood registered in his field of vision as the man clutched at his chest and fell to his knees on the stone balcony. The gun in his hand had barely made a sound, but Joey could see the heavily armed guards already rushing to the mans side. Of course, they would already be to late. Joey never missed and had never failed to have a fatality because he was the best. Joey stood and pulled a small cellphone out of his pocket. He pressed the send button twice and lifted it to his ear. "_Mission status?"_ There wasn't much of a network in Libya so the reception wasn't good, but he knew the operator on the other side would be able to hear him. "Mission accomplished."

Joey rubbed his shoulder and stretched. 'Man I'm tiyad.' He though as the elevator rose. As the elevator slowed to a stop, he picked up his dusty travel bag and hoisted it onto his shoulder. The door binged and opened into a plush lobby.

"Hey Joey!" His friend Yugi called as Joey stepped onto the carpet.

"Hey Yug'." Joey waved as Yugi bounded towards him.

"Nice job. You seen the news coverage yet?"

Joey shook his head. "Naw, I had a red-eye flight. Slept the entiya time too."

Yugi laughed. "I'm not surprised. Over night from Greece to New York is not the easiest trip to make under normal circumstances."

Joey laughed as well. "Yeah it was murda gettin' a flight. I skipped through the border into Egypt, got a boat up ta Alexandria and then it was onto another boat across the sea ta Greece." Joey shook his head. Sometimes he really hated the jobs in areas with political turmoil. Sure they paid better, but half the time it was barely worth all the trouble he had to go through to get in and out. There was the danger as well but Joey never worried about that. He was one of the best.

"How many aliases do you think you had to use?" Yugi asked as they walked down the corridor that would take them to another elevator that would take them to the assassin quarters.

"Fa the whol' trip?"

Yugi nodded. "Had ta have been at least ten. They should be sending out a Sweep Team soon." Sweep Team was slang for a covert team the company would send out after a successful mission to make sure there would be no traces left behind to trace any of the assassins back to the company. As they spoke, two of their friends came out of their room. One, Duke, waved briefly before turning around to yell at his companion, who was having trouble with their equipment.

The assassins could get by with one, maybe two, bags and their weapons for a job, but Sweepers like Duke and Tristan couldn't. Especially not techies like Duke. "Oh c'mon Tristan! It's not that heavy!" Duke reprimanded as Tristan tried once more to lift one of the satchels onto his shoulders. He succeeded...barely. Next, Tristan tried to lift one of the overstuffed, undersized suitcases. The sound that issued from it was what was probably a lot of delicate, and therefor expensive, equipment running into each other.

Joey winced and saw Duke's eyebrow twitch. "If you break anything in that bag," he snarled, pointing, "not only will They have your hide, but I will too!" They, of course, referred to their bosses. Most people would have quaked under the furious glare being aimed at Tristan by his emerald-eyed boyfriend. But Tristan had known Duke for five years, and lived with him just as long. And he knew what to do when the younger boy got like that. He glared right back and shoved one of the bags into Duke's arms.

"Then you carry everything and I'll order you around." Tristan hissed, right in Duke's face.

Yugi and Joey exchanged despondent looks. They knew Duke and Tristan and this sort of thing could go on for ages. Worse, whenever they had a stand-off, one would usually end up attacking and eating the others face off in a fit of passion and lust and they would usually wind up keeping all their neighbors up long into the night. If they were on the way to a job, then they could not get distracted. And Yugi and Joey could already see a few sparks of lust in their eyes.

"Are ya guys goin' on a job?" Joey asked, interrupting their silent battle. Duke shook his head to clear the fog of lust and passion from his mind. He turned and smirked at Joey, placing his hand delicately on his hip like a girl.

"Yeah, cleaning up after you." Duke reached for the bag Tristan had shoved at him.

Joey smirked in turn. "Ya won' have much to clean up. The whole city was a ghost town. No one cared who or what I was. I used more aliases gettin' theya and back than I did on the actual mission."

Duke rolled his eyes. "We'll see about that." He said as he helped Tristan down the hall with their bags.


	2. Chapter 1

**Bang You're Dead 1**

**EDIT: So…I, dummy that I am, uploaded the wrong version of this. *****headdesk headdesk headdesk***** So here's the rest of this!**

**Here's the first official chapter of this finally! This is, in my opinion, a really good idea so I hope it takes off. Seto and Joey meet in this one, I promise. Oh and I'm making Mai ten years older than Joey so she's about 28.**

**Yu-Gi-Oh! And all related characters, locations, and franchising BS is © to Kazuki Takahashi**

**Idea, company, and any SpaceFiller OCs I throw in here are © to me**

"Joey?"

Named looked up from his computer. "Yeah Tea?" He asked. It was five weeks after his mission in Libya.

The brunet on the TV screen looked nervous. "Mai wants to see you."

Joey froze. Mai? If Mai wanted to see him, it could either be a really good thing, or a really bad thing. "What about?" He asked. Usually, Mai would tell Tea why she needed to see someone, if it was a good thing anyway. If she didn't…

"She didn't say." Tea said glumly. "I'm sorry Joey…"

Joey sighed. Mai had been the one to bring him to the Company when she found him nearly dead on the streets and became his mentor. He had been eight years old. He stood up and stretched, his back cracking.

He looked at Tea, who was biting her lip. "Alright, I'm on my way up."

Tea looked like she was going to say something then decided against it. "I'll let her know you're on your way." Then the screen went blank.

Joey switched his computer off and grabbed his keycard off the desk. He looked around the black and red room, trying to decide whether or not he needed to take his cell phone. He plucked it off the bed. It wasn't as if he'd need it, but it had basically become a part of him, so he took it anyway.

He walked down the hallway. There, another elevator would take him up to Mai's office. At least, that was the plan, until he ran head first into what appeared to be two walking stacks of files.

Paper went everywhere and Joey fell backwards onto his ass. As papers floated down, he spotted his friends Ryo and Malik through the chaos.

Joey scooted forward onto his hands and knees and began picking up papers and putting them into piles.

"Ah man! I'm sorry guys." He said as they also started picking up papers and shoving them into folders.

"Oh, it's alright Joey." Ryo said sweetly, "We were taking these to be sorted anyway."

Malik laughed. "Yeah, we can let those bozos in Records take care of this mess." He started stacking Joey's piles into one pile and shuffling them into his arms. They stood and Joey handed Ryo the last folder.

"Where are you headed anyway Joey?" Ryo asked.

"Mai's office." Joey said glumly.

"Did she say why?" Malik looked worried.

"Nope."

They both winced. Mai was Head of the Assassins so they didn't deal with her much since they both worked in Research, but their boyfriends did. Bakura and Marik were two of the best assassins, though they did break the rules a lot. They were too good to get rid of though.

"Well…good luck I guess Joey." Malik said as he and Ryo moved down the corridor. Joey waved and headed towards the elevator.

Joey knocked lightly on the thick mahogany door. The brass plate read: _Mai Valentine: Head of Assassins._

"Come in Joey." Came the muffled reply. Joey glanced at Tea, who flashed him a thumbes-up.

Opening the door, Joey stepped into Mai's very familiar office. She was reading some paperwork at the desk and motioned for Joey to sit down across from her without looking up. Seating himself in the large leather chair, Joey looked around the room. Pictures stared at him from nearly every shelf in the room. Some were pictures of Mai when she was younger; Her first ballet recital (Mai was an avid dancer), a smiling blond girl splashing around a pool, Mai at a Carnival with some friends, Mai shooting her first gun, pictures from both her High School Graduation and graduation from Tokyo University, Mai at the ROTC Graduation and pictures from every one of her tours of duty as a Black Ops Operative, along with several others.

Then there were pictures from after the Company had recruited her; Mai on her first day, newspaper clippings from every one of her successful cases (over 200 in all, the current record), Mai the day she was elected Deputy Head and then Head of the department, and a still from a newscast when she was Made and shot in the head and stomach while on a mission in the Alps.

One shelf was completely dedicated to pictures of her and Joey. Joey and her his first day of third grade, Joey at the training camp held by the Company after he won first place for marksmanship (three years in a row), all of Joey's graduations, Joey before his first mission (looking overly confident), Joey after his first mission (looking like a wreck), and several others of just the two of them whenever Mai had her camera.

The last shelf was filled with mementoes. Mai's first gun, the barrel of which had been smashed by a falling rock, the bullets they had pulled out of Mai's head and stomach, her Black Ops medals, awards (both dance and scholastic achievements), and scraps off of every gun she'd ever owned.

Joey freely admitted that he'd had a crush on Mai when he was younger, but eventually realized that she'd always be more like a big sister. That was also around the time he'd come out, but that was another story.

Mai finally looked up from her paperwork. "Hello Joey."

"Hi Mai."

A tense silence filled the room before Mai burst out laughing. "Relax Joey! You aren't in trouble. In fact, you did an exceptional job on your last mission." She looked back at her paperwork, which Joey now recognized as the overview of his mission.

"Thank god." Joey felt his muscles unknotting as he breathed a sigh of relief.

Mai shook her head. "Honestly Joey, you worry too much. In fact, I called you in here to give you your next assignment."

"Huh? But we usually get them in an email. What's so special about this assignment?" he asked.

"Exactly Joey. This assignment is _special_. So special that it cannot leave this room." Mai leaned forward.

"Of course Mai." He mimed zipping up his mouth and throwing away the key. "My lips are sealed."

Mai smiled. "Good. Now, here is your assignment." She clicked a few keys on her keyboard and turned the screen to face Joey. On the screen were a few news articles and clips. All of them seemed to be centered around one person; Seto Kaiba.

Joey recognized his name. He was a wealthy millionaire businessman, a pioneer in the technology industry, more specifically the video game industry.

"He hired us for the job?" Joey asked.

Mai shook her head. "No Joey, he _is_ the job."

"I have to kill him?" Joey didn't know why, but he really didn't like the sound of killing this man. Usually killing people didn't bother Joey, but something about this man was just too…familiar.

"Is that a problem Joey?" Mai asked suspiciously. In reality, she was as uneasy about this job as Joey was, but the orders for this one had come from the top and she couldn't dispute it.

Joey hesitated for a moment before shaking his head. "No, no problem." He continued to stare at the screen, absorbing every detail. "So who's the customer?" He asked after a moment.

"That's the thing Joey…they won't tell me." Mai's big lavender eyes showed the worry that she would never voice aloud.

A cold shiver traveled down Joey's spine, like someone had just dumped a bucket of ice water down his back. He'd never heard of someone not being told who the customer was.

"But…but they always tell us!"

Mai shrugged. "I know that Joey, but not this time."

Joey chewed on his lip and sighed. "Okay. When do I leave?"

"As soon as possible."

Joey peered up at the glittering mansion. While the circumstances surrounding who'd hired Joey were mysterious, the conditions of Seto Kaiba's death were very precise. Joey was to attend the party Kaiba was hosting for the debut of his new Virtual Reality Gaming System, the VR Goggles 3-A, and kill him there. Joey supposed the customer had wanted Kaiba's death to be public and at a party celebrating the brunet's achievements as one last "Screw You." Or maybe as a message, it didn't really matter to Joey.

From what Joey had read about Kaiba, he seemed to actually detest parties. It was his younger brother, Mokuba Kaiba, was the one that coordinated every facet of these parties, and indeed, of his older brother's life.

Joey moved with the crowd, blending in perfectly in his penguin suit. They poured through the doors into the immaculate front hall. The hall was decorated tastefully in blue and gold and there were stations set up for people to test the new system and the premiere game _Time Runners_.

'Oddly appropriate,' Joey thought, 'considering Kaiba's time has run out.'

Joey mixed and mingled, keeping his cat-eyed lids peeled for the businessman. Joey thought he saw him a few times, but the brunette always got lost in the crowd. Around midnight, Joey was getting anxious. And rather tweeked, if he was being truthful.

He'd done this before, so why was this proving to be such a difficulty? Usually, he could spot a target in less than five minutes, even in a crowd. But this one was proving alarmingly elusive. Clearly, the brunet hated parties as much as the blond did. Joey was starting to get the feeling that Kaiba was…well maybe not a figurehead, but not exactly the most involved person. He'd given a speech earlier in the night but had disappeared as soon as it was over.

Suddenly, Joey spotted him. The brunet was sneaking up the stairs, keeping to the center so as not to run into too many people.

Joey bolted up the stairs after Kaiba, almost running over the younger Kaiba brother. He followed at a safe distance, keeping his eyes on the brunet as he wound his way towards the upper floors. Kaiba pounded up the last flight and Joey lost him for a moment, but spotted a door at the end of the hall snap closed. Joey approached the door slowly, checking for security. He hadn't seen the brunet enter but it was as good a guess as going further up the stairs. There was nothing that he could see, but Joey withdrew a small washer from his pocket and threw it towards the door. It stuck.

A magnetic plate in the door, most likely with a randomly generated access code as well, it was then. By all conventional means, the door was completely impenetrable unless you had the right level of magnet with the proper code. But Joey knew a few tricks.

He pulled a small magnet from his pocket and a small device with keys labled 0-9 and A-Z. Attatching the magnet to the door, he placed the antenna of the device against it and pressed a few keys. It hummed and cycled through numbers and letters, crunching through the data stored in the door. A minute latter, Joey heard the latch of the door pull back. Success!

Joey used a rubber glove to open the door in case there were any extra booby traps, like an electrified door handle, and for when they dusted for prints.

The room was dark and Joey could only make out faint shapes in the darkness. It looked like he was in an office. He moved towards the center of the room, reaching for the dart he had been instructed to use on the billionaire.

Suddenly, the clouds outside parted and moonlight flooded the room, glinting off the barrel of the SR9 9mm Semi-Automatic Pistol and Silencer held in Seto Kaiba's hand. Joey kicked himself. Dammit, dammit, dammit all to fucking hell!

"Bang! You're dead." Kaiba said with a smug smirk. "Hands up."

Joey lifted his hands above his head.

"Drop the dart and kick it back towards the door."

Joey did so, scowling at being disarmed.

"Very good."

Kaiba stood up from the desk and walked over to Joey. He stood a few feet in front of him and leveled the gun at his head.

"Give me one good reason why I shouldn't kill you."

Joey pretended to think for a minute. Nothing really came to mind. After all, he didn't know the name of his employer. All he really had was the knowledge that if he didn't succeed, the company would just send someone else. And they'd keep sending them until they decided to cut their losses, or someone succeeded.

Joey shrugged, feigning disinterest, though he knew he would die before the night was up. "Really, I don't have any good reason for you not to kill me. I don't know my employer and I don't know their reasons for wanting you dead." He hid his eyes behind his bangs and closed them. "All I know is that I wont be the last person to try for your life."

Kaiba glared and shifted his grip on the gun and Joey's eyes flashed open. If Kaiba was going to kill him, he wanted to see the bullet come. He wouldn't die a coward and he wouldn't hide from death. But something made Kaiba pause.

He walked forward and used the barrel of the gun to brush Joey's bangs out of his face. His eyes flashed with something almost akin to recognition and disbelief. Kaiba removed the gun and backpedaled towards the desk.

Joey was confused to say the least. Hadn't the brunet been about to shoot him? And now he was walking away, the gun pointed towards the roof. Joey watched as Kaiba pressed a button on the phone and a voice crackled through the speakers.

"Yes Mister Kaiba?"

"Could you come up here please Roland? I have a guest I need you to put in the third floor bedroom. Quickly please."

"…Yes sir." The voice said after a slight pause. What was so special about the third floor bedroom? Joey wondered. Or was it just code for something?

A moment later, a tall man with black hair and two shots of grey appeared in the doorway. He looked at Joey and then back to his employer. "Is this the guest?" He asked. Kaiba nodded.

The man, Roland, pulled Joey away by his elbow and thrust him into an elevator across the hall. He followed Joey inside and pressed a button. The doors slid closed and what seemed like moments later, Joey was pushed through the doors and into a room done in reds and blacks. Joey turned to yell at the man but the doors had already slid closed and a section of wall slid back into place, completely covering the area where the elevator had been.

Joey looked around the room quickly. There were three doors, but after a swift test, Joey found that one of them, the one that seemed to lead out, was locked, and he couldn't get through, not even with his failsafe. The other two doors led to a large bathroom and a kitchenette with a well stocked refrigerator.

"What the fuck?"

**That was fun. I liked writing that, I did. I hope whoever ends up reading this likes it too.**

**Read and Review Please!**


	3. Chapter 2

**One Good Reason 2**

**I should be writing this huh? And after I was so excited for it… I guess starting like 10 other stories and a stolen iPad is a good excuse. Right?**

Joey punched the door. What the hell was going on? This had never happened before. Joey pulled his phone out of his pocket, checking for the 100th time to see if it was working. It wasn't. There must have been inhibitors in the ceiling.

"Okay, take a deep breath and calm down." Joey said calmly. Talking to yourself was an early sign of madness, Joey knew, but he didn't much care right now. He scanned the room quickly, looking for a blind spot from the camera's staring blatantly down at every corner of the room. He didn't see any…

Next, a more thorough check of the room. He pulled open drawers and was surprised to find that they were full of clothes, most of them in his size. In the kitchenette, the shelves were all fully stocked and there was a complete set of utensils, even knives.

"This Kaiba guy is pretty stupid for a genius." But when he tried to pick up the butchers knife, he discovered a cord attached to the handle only allowed it to be pulled as far as the counter and didn't even come close to the door. Cursing, he put it back in the drawer and grabbed a bag of chips from the shelf. He was hungry after all.

Joey didn't even bother checking the bathroom but instead sat cross-legged on the bed and ripped open the chips. "Alright, let me think, let all of me think…"

Seto Kaiba leaned back heavily in his chair, hand over his mouth, staring out of the window. One thing kept flashing through his head. Those eyes. Those eyes he hadn't seen in so long. But could it be possible… Could he really-NO! There was no way that the man sent to kill him was-

"Big brother?"

Seto turned quickly to see his little brother leaning on the door. "Yes, Mokuba?"

"Party's over. I'm going to bed, okay?"

Seto nodded. "Alright. Sleep well kiddo."

"Don't stay up too late." And with that, Mokuba headed down the hall to his room.

Seto sighed. He'd tell his brother about their…guest soon. But not tonight. Now he needed to check to make sure the blond didn't hurt himself. Seto accessed the security cameras from his computer and clicked on the server for the third floor guest room. The blond was sprawled on the bed, a half-eaten bag of chips tucked into his elbow. He was snoring like a pig.

Seto felt his lips quirk up into something almost like a smile. The boy was…cute. He had a feeling this was going to be rather fun. He hoped he was right, because if he wasn't… No. He had to be Joey. He just had to be.

**Is it just me or is this kind of…short? No wait, it is short. But it opens up for more intreuging stuff later on, so please bear with me. *bow and exit stage left* (just watched RENT)**

**R&R PLEASE!**


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